Moshi Moshi are excited to announce the new album from Sweet Baboo, aka. North Wales’ musician, Stephen Black, on 2nd June. “When you feel the need for space, run away from place to place,” he sings, offering an irresistible invitation: “Here’s two train tickets, let’s go!” After the Harry Nilsson-esque love songs of 2015’s The Boombox Ballads, Black embarks on a new mission on Wild Imagination: to find the perfect pick-me-up antidote to the winter of our discontent.
The result is a bright, wry, melodically buoyant and sweetly melancholy tonic from the North Wales (born in Trefriw, near Snowdonia; now Cardiff-based) singer: a tribute to the joys of travel and the warming return home alike. Previously, Black’s co-travelling collaborators have included Carmarthenshire’s Cate Le Bon. But his sweet sentiments and winning melodies have been constant companions for all open-hearted listeners since 2003. And they prove so once more on Wild Imagination, with impeccable timing.
“I think everyone agrees 2016 was a pretty shitty year,” Black explains. “I kept thinking about my son (he’s nearly 3) and wanting to protect him from the world, so I decided to try and make an album full of positivity because that’s what I know I can do. And at the moment, I don’t know what else to suggest. As an aside, the album was originally going to be called Positive Recordings.”
Tracklisting
1. The Gardener
2. Wild Imagination
3. Swallows
4. Badminton
5. Clear Blue Skies
6. The Night Gardener
7. Hold On
8. Pink Rainbow
9. Humberside
10. Californ-i-a